Spin Dryer commercial

[whirlcool]

Steve:

This is NOT what I want to be reading after I ordered one!
Is this spin dryer really hard to balance and smells like it's burning? Please elaborate!

Keeping my fingers crossed!

Allen

 

[toggleswitch]

Allen:

I suppose the trick is to, of course, load it in a balanced way, and cut off the power ASAP when it is struggling.

The other guys (at the mini wash-in) had better luck with it than I did.

The smell is dissipating. It may have been jsut the new appliance "break-in period" odor.

Also trick seems to be to push the load in as far a possible, but not too much at once.

 

[whirlcool]

Thanks for the info. Hopefully mine will arrive this week. I have a load of dog towels that will need washing. I'll watch the balance on it. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[toggleswitch]

Good luck and enjoy!

 

[Designgeek]

Proper load size for these...

Drop the wet clothes into the spinner until it's full, don't press them down, and then put on the spin mat to keep stuff from escaping.

If you overload, what will happen is that the cylinder will take excessive time to come up to speed, which could cause problems.

An unbalanced load will cause excessive vibration. You can tell when you hear it. When properly loaded these things should be whisper-quiet when they're at running speed.

If you use the spin/rinse procedure of running water through the machine during a spin cycle, wait until it's up to speed before turning on the water and then monitor the operation. If the spinner starts to slow down, you're using too much water too fast, so turn down the water a bit.

These things are not "automatic" in the sense we're normally used to; they should be watched while in operation, at least until you're sufficiently accustomed to the sounds they make that you can keep an ear on it from another room.

Re. the various teething troubles & supply-line delays: this is normal for "early adopters" of various technologies or for technologies entering new markets. The burning smell might be a bad sign, I would look into that more closely.

 

[Designgeek]

I wrote something about the micro-twinnie in England, though someone around here actually has one and has posted extensively including pictures.

The micro-twinnie on that USA site is similar to but not the same as the one sold in England. But, eeyow!, yellow and purple?! Can we have a choice of colors, please?, maybe back to good old blue & white and so on, maybe some pastels to match the vintage apartment kitchen...?

I might get one as a test case; would also be interesting to substitute DC motors and see if it would run off a solar system.

24" tall is a bit tall for convenient use if placed atop a kitchen counter next to the sink. Might be more convenient to place on a table adjacent to a bath tub or something.

What I need more than this is a compact dishwasher, but they seem to be too large for the space I have available. And a micro tumble dryer (also on the UK site) would be nice for spot-drying individual articles when there's not enough time to hang them on the line.

 

[chestermikeuk]

Spinner Twinny

Here`s the link again and its very much on the lines of Toggles new spinner...1600rpm and very quiet...

In my experience you get to know how to load you own individual machines...(and having lots of spinners, about, 7 single & 16 on twinnies) the best option is to drape the clothes around the sides, think agi in the middle...place small items in the middle, dont pack down too tight because they need to fly to the sides etc...place the mat on top..

The newer twinnies are quiet ...but the older belt driven ones are most certainly not...I`ll make a mini vid (Hi Glen)of the latest model I`ve picked up, a 70`s Creda Debonair, 2,800rpm, it sounds like a cement mixer with afterburners..lol, very distinctive sound

Happy Spinning

Mike

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/chestermikeuk/detail?.dir=8735&.dnm=2d9f.jpg&.src=ph

 

[whirlcool]

The Mat Goes On Top?

Ah, I didn't know that the mat goes on top of the clothes! I probably would have put it at the bottom and had stuff flying out of the top of the unit all over the room (now that could lead to woofin!)
I haven't received my maching yet, but thanks again for the loading recommendations. That's some pretty helpful info!

 

[Designgeek]

Yes, the mat goes on top of the clothes, and below the rim of the spin tub. When it's properly in place, it catches under the rim such that a uniformly applied pressure from below (i.e. clothes trying to escape) will not cause it to pop out, but you can remove it by bending it slightly so it can be pulled back out from under the rim. Very clever, actually.

And if you don't use it, you will have socks escape and get caught between the spinner and the outer tub, which could damage the machine. Not speaking from experience here, but it stands to reason.

Chester: but y'all in the UK have relatively *quiet* portable cement mixers, with enclosed driveline instead of an exposed ring gear like we have in the USA (Word to the wise: wear hearing protectors, especially if you're pouring concrete in an indoor location, and keep your hair tied back or wear a cap.)

Someone back there, re. RPMs.: The UK and Euro spinners tend to be rated at 3200 rpm. The ones in the USA market tend to be rated at 1600 rpm. This may be due to the difference between a 240-volt motor (UK & Euro) and a 120-volt motor (USA). However in my experience, 1600 rpm does a dandy job, and gets a measurable amount more water out of a load.

Chester again: Yes, exactly as you said, load the stuff as if there's an agitator in the middle, and then drop the small items like socks into the "donut hole" where the "imaginary agitator" would be. (Do this a few times and it becomes second nature.)

Another thing you'll notice when you're using a spinner on all your wash, is that your dryer times are reduced by 50% to 75%. And you'll notice a difference on your electric bill as a result. Those Asian-made spinner units should pay for themselves in about a year this way, and everything after that is clear savings.

What we need in the US is a spinner with a pump and discharge hose, that can be more or less permanently installed in the laundry room. I suspect that the minor inconvenience of having to deal with manual drains on most of these units, is holding back sales. But add a drain pump, and the savings on utility bills would be enough to make these things sell themselves.

 

[whirlcool]

Designgeek:

Thanks for all the info about how to load one of these spinners.
I like the way you discussed "clothes escaping" & "clothes trying to escape". ROFL! But there really is no other way to put it. I can just imagine the "escapees" flying out of the machine, throwing the lid open and being flung out all over the room! I have a load of dog towels just waiting to be washed & spun!

I agree with your statement that if these were able to be permanently hooked up to a drain, they would be hot sellers.

 

[toggleswitch]

...or better yet, add a quick-connect uni-couple as would be seen on a portable washer or dishwasher and really have something.

I'd love to be able to roll my Paksitani plastic toy "The Boss" to the sink and do a spray rinse.

 

[whirlcool]

Steve:

What size hose does that water intake on the "Boss" take? Is it just a friction type connector? Is a hose supplied with the unit?

Thanks!

 

[Designgeek]

Ahh, but what other "toy" do you have that will actively save you money every month you use it?

 

[toggleswitch]

lol.

To be a gentleman, I sorta need to let that one go over my head LOL



The size (width) of the hose connection is 5/8 inch o.d.
The connection stub itslef is 3/4 inches long.

 

[Designgeek]

Oh poo!, I didn't even catch that implication when I wrote it! Right, savings on dinners-out and movies that don't lead to a life of bliss... and all for only a few pennies' worth of electricity.

Hmm, someone should use that as a marketing concept. Probably sell a lot of those "appliances" that way.

 

[toggleswitch]

oh my.....

 

[whirlcool]

Now Arriving....

We came home from grocery shopping and lo and behold, there was our spinner sitting on the doorstep! After wrestling it in the house (rather bulky and no handholds on the box) I opened it up and brought it to the kitchen for a cool down. After being out in the Texas heat the unit sure was hot. I figured I'd let it cool down to room temp before I use it. I was rather impressed by the build quality. It seems pretty well put together with all the parts fitting nice and tight and square to each other.
Except for the lid, which is a touch flimsy, it seems to be built to last for awhile.
It smells exactly like Chrysler Corp cars did 1968-1973 or so!
That's the first thing I noticed when I lifted to lid. I was instantly reminded of the special sound the starter made on those cars. When you heard one start back then, you knew it was from Chrylser just by the sound. Kinda like a tinny whine.
How can a smell remind you of a sound, kinda crazy, but it does!
Well, the dog towels are a washin'.

 

[whirlcool]

I finished up the load of dog towels. Four bath size and 4 hand towel size dust cloths. I filled up the spinner basket and started her up, set for 3 minutes. It extracted only 1-1/2 cups of water from the towels. As a test, I redistbuted the towels in the spinner and spun them again. No more water, which means that it truly extracts all the water from the clothes.
Dry time took 33 minutes, rather than the normal 50 minutes or so in the WP dryer. These are thick towels!
The first spin was quieter than the second. It does have that "Concorde Taking Off" sound, but it is more like a loud humm, rather than a roar. Personally I don't think that you would want to connect a hose to that water inlet, I think it would overwhelm the machine. I put a funnel in the water inlet and then took a nice big 64 oz container of chlorine free water and poured it through. The water came out clear and clean.
I don't have a burning smell, the laundry area now has that "new car" smell. Not objectionable at all. I think it will go away after several uses.

 

[toggleswitch]

Great!

Enjoy.

 

[Designgeek]

Coolio!, another spinner installed, and another electric bill going down by a measurable amount each month.

Re. the water inlet: I've been experimenting with the spinner on my TT, which is basically similar to these standalone spinners. The point of the water inlet is for the spin/rinse procedure, used where your washer doesn't spin (i.e. TTs and certain compact washers that don't have spin cycles in the washtubs).

If you put water in while a spin cycle is going, the added inertial mass of the water going into the load will bog down the system and put strain on the motor. I tried this once and could tell the motor didn't like it one bit.

However, you can wait until after the motor stops, and then start adding water about halfway through the amount of time it takes for the spinner to coast to a stop. Or you can wait until it stops entirely, and then add water. Soak it into the load slowly enough that it doesn't pool up. Then stop the water and start another spin cycle. It will take longer to get up to speed than if you've taken the clothes out of a washer that's already spun 'em, but it will do the job. Repeat as needed to get *all* the detergent out. I've been experimenting with this procedure to see how much or little water it takes and how many spin/rinse cycles are needed to get to where there's nothing left to rinse out in a regular rinse cycle. It doesn't cause any extra strain on the motor.

Realistically, if you've just washed / rinsed / spun in another machine, you don't need to do the add water & spin/rinse procedure with the spinner; the purpose of the spinner at that point is to extract all the rest of the water so your dryer time (or clothesline time) will be much less. And yeah it'll pay for itself pretty quickly that way.